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VE · Venezuela · →

Muñoz fire, 10 March 2024 Muñoz

Out · last detection 16 Mar 2024, 18:43 UTC

The fire started on 10 March 2024 in Muñoz, Venezuela, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,498 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 368th largest in Apure since 2016 (of 919 with a page). Number 180 in Venezuela in 2024, of 482.

The power measured by the satellite is low (28.0 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
2,498ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
10 Mar 2024 – 15 Mar 2024
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
10 Mar
2024
Heat detections
69
in a single hotspot: 28 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
796MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Mar 2024
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Mar15 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

10111213141516

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

39°high
37km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone 32 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

38% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 951 ha in 2023.

What happened to each town

  1. Muñoz 27,542 inhabitants where it started
    2,517 ha reached on 10 Mar
    0.3 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

The weather day by day

ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
10 Mar 37.5 °C 33 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
11 Mar 39.3 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
12 Mar 39.0 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Mar 38.9 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
14 Mar 38.6 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
15 Mar 39.1 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
16 Mar after 38.7 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
17 Mar after 38.8 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 39
18 Mar after 38.4 °C 34 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
19 Mar after 37.1 °C 36 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Mar after 39.3 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
21 Mar after 39.2 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Mar after 38.4 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
23 Mar after 38.3 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
24 Mar after 38.4 °C 29 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Mar after 39.2 °C 31 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Mar after 38.7 °C 32 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Mar after 38.1 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Mar after 37.9 °C 34 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
29 Mar after 38.9 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
30 Mar after 36.5 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
31 Mar after 39.7 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
1 Apr after 37.5 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.7 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 3 Mar 2024
After · 22 Mar 2024

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 8 March 2024 the air beside the fire reached 65 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 37: 2.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak65 µg/m³
Days over the guideline11 days
PM1093 µg/m³
Optical depth0.97
89101112131415161718
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 69Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Venezuela ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Muñoz fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 March 2024 and 15 March 2024: 6 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,498 hectares (25.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Muñoz (2,517 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.3 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Venezuela (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

Where to verify it

A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.

Emergency number: 911

Satellite cross-check

Does something look wrong on this page?

This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 911.

Where this data comes from

The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.